Aggressive legislation improved water and air quality over the last twenty-five years so that it now exceeds or meets strict Federal standards. To achieve even greater results, more serious attention needs to be given to non-point source pollution.

Car and coal-fired power plants account for all of the state's ozone causing nitrogen oxide. To remedy this, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Ambient Air Quality Improvement Act of 1999. The law expands the current automobile emissions testing program and the number of counties using the program. By 2006, forty-eight counties having 80 percent of all the cars and trucks on the state's roads will be required to use this emissions test. The law is not without its detractors, however.

There are fourteen coal-fired power plants in North Carolina, with Carolina Power and Light and Duke Power having seven each. Rules adopted in October 2000 require these plants to emit 69 percent less nitrogen oxide in five years than currently. The challenge in doing this is whether the aging plants can reduce ozone-causing gases and still keep the power flowing.

Legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly places the state in the forefront in the fight against air pollution. The law, popularly called the \"Clean Smokestacks Bill,\" requires power plants to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from 245,000 tons in 1998 to 56,000 tons by 2009. Reductions in sulfur dioxide are also required. Power suppliers, including Duke Energy and Progress Energy, support the legislation.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed the Clean Smokestacks Act almost four years ago to clean up soot and smog-forming pollution from coal-fired power plants. While the act requires power plants to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from 245,000 tons in 1998 to 56,000 tons by 2009, it does not say what to do about mercury pollution from those plants. Most of the mercury pollution from these plants falls into nearby water bodies, where, in North Carolina, it is quickly converted to its most toxic form. Suttles discusses what needs to be done to reduce this form of pollution which makes some state fish inedible and threatens developing brains and central nervous systems of young children.

An historical account of air pollution and legislation to curb pollution on a national level frames the conversation concerning the state's current problems and legislation on this matter. Many laws targeted congested areas like cities where people were more likely to feel the effects of pollution. First recognition of the problem happened in the 1963 General Assembly when the State Air Hygiene Program Act passed.